23 August, 2009

Every raid guild has this important decision to make. When they are going to start doing hard modes in Ulduar, which ones will they attempt, and even, if they will bother with hard modes at all.

For some guilds, it’s organized dates and goals. 3 Full clears and it’s time for hard modes. Other guilds are jumping into hard modes when they have not meet Yogg Saron yet, or even General Vezax.

If you are attempting hard modes I would suggest you plan it. Tell your raid that you will be doing XT hard mode and give a time frame also, for example, 1 hour. If you cannot do it in that time, perhaps it’s time to move on and kill him normally, before you break moral and make your raiders dread coming back tomorrow.

Some fights are a DPS race, for example Hodir down in 3 minutes. Do some calculations and work out how much DPS you need as a whole, and individually, to get through these encounters. You know you are ready for hard mode when your DPS are reaching their goal for that fight.

Others require individual skill and good teamwork abilities, to get you through. Flame lev requires good timing/sync with demo drivers, passengers, and choppers, as well as everyone being able to stay out of the dumb, kite the boss correctly and the whole “I need more PYRITE!” too. Try these ones out when every one of your raiders has had experience in this fight, and communicate often during it.

Yogg Saron, Freya and Flame Lev are a great introduction to Hard Modes, as they will allow you to ease into it slowly. Try FL with 1 tower and if you rocked at it, try it next time with 2 or 3.

There is no book that tells you when you are ready for hard mode, and some can be frustrating to work on. You will wipe often and your repair bills will be large. But it’s a fantastic way to jazz up Ulduar, now that its’ starting to become a local “Farming” place, and the loot is nothing to be snubbed at.

So which to start with? Personally I found Flame Lev to be the best one to shoot for first, followed by XT.